1937
The Awful Truth (1937: Leo McCarey)
A Day at the Races (1937: Sam Wood)
The Life of Emile Zola (1937: William Dieterle)
Make Way For Tomorrow (1937: Leo McCarey)
On The Avenue (1937: Roy Del Ruth)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937: Several)
Stage Door (1937: Gregory La Cava)
Way Out West (1937: James W. Horne)
Wee Willie Winkle (1937: John Ford)
Young and Innocent (1937: Alfred Hitchcock)

Additional: Fallen Idol (1948: Carol Reed)
Not Seen of Retro: Bodyguard, Cry of the City, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Pitfall, Road House, The Street with No Name

1949
The Big Steal (1949: Don Siegal)
The Heiress (1949: William Wyler)
A Letter To Three Wives (1949: Joseph Mankiewicz)
In the Good Old Summertime (1949: Robert Z. Leonard)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949: Robert Hamer)
On the Town (1949: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelley)
The Set-Up (1949: Robert Wise)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949: John Ford)
The Third Man (1949: Carol Reed)
White Heat (1949: Raoul Walsh)

1951
Ace in the Hole (1951: Billy Wilder)
The African Queen (1951: John Huston)
An American in Paris (1951: Vincente Minnelli)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951: Robert Wise)
His Kind of Woman (1951: John Farrow)
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951: Charles Crichton)
A Place in the Sun (1951: George Stevens)
Scrooge (1951: Brian Desmond Hurst)
Strangers on a Train (1951: Alfred Hitchcock)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951: Elia Kazan)

Additional: The Man in the White Suit (1951: Alexander Mackendrick)
Not Seen of Retro: The Desert Fox, Detective Story, The Enforcer, Go for Broke, The House of Telegraph Hill, Quo Vadis

1952
Bend of the River (1952: Anthony Mann)
High Noon (1952: Fred Zinnemann)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952: Anthony Asquith)
Lost in Alaska (1952: Jean Yarbrough)
Macao (1952: Josef von Sternberg)
Moulin Rouge (1952: John Huston)
On Dangerous Ground (1952: Nicolaus Ray) IMDB has this as 1951, but it is a 1952 release
The Quiet Man (1952: John Ford)
Singing in the Rain (1952: Stanley Donen)
The Sniper (1952: Edward Dymtyrk)

Additional: The Family Jewels (1965: Jerry Lewis)
Not Seen of Retro: Battle of the Bulge, The Bedford Incident, Brain Storm, Faster, Pussycat !Kill! Kill!, The Heroes of the Telemark, Operation Crossbow, Von Ryan’s Express

Additional: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970: Billy Wilder)
Not Seen of Retro: The Executioner, Fragment of Fear, Hornet’s Nest, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, Tick… Tick… Tick…, Two Late the Hero, Tora! Tora! Tora!

Additional: The Shining (1980: Stanley Kubrick)
Not Seen of Retro: Alligator, Borderline, Brubaker, Cruising, Flash Gordon, Friday the 13th, Night of the Juggler
Not Seen of Mark: The Changeling, Cruising, Dressed to Kill, Friday the 13th, New: Eyes of a Stranger)

Additional: Diner (1982: Barry Levinson)
Not Seen of Retro: The Challenge, Class of 1984, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, An Officer and a Gentleman, Poltergeist
Not Seen of Mark: Death Wish II, The Entity, Evil Under the Sun, Poltergeist, Tenebrae

Additional: Terms of Endearment (1983: James L.Brooks)
Not Seen of Retro: 10 to Midnight, Lone Wolf McQuade, The Star Chamber, Uncommon Valor, Under Fire
Not Seen of Mark: Bad Boys, The Dead Zone, Psycho II, Silkwood, 10 to Midnight

Additional: Three Amigos! (1986: John Landis)
Not Seen of Retro: Cobra, Friday the 13th Part VI, Iron Eagle, Thrashin’
Not Seen of Mark: Avenging Force, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Friday the 13th, Part VI, Salvador

Additional: The Indian in the Cupboard (1995: Frank Oz)
Not Seen of Retro: Crying Freeman, Dead Presidents, Just Cause
Not Seen of Mark: Dead Presidents, The Hunted, The Last Supper, The Quick and the Dead

Additional: Happy Gilmore (1996: Dennis Dugan)
Not Seen of Retro: Chain Reaction, Executive Decision, The Long Kiss Goddnight
Not Seen of Mark: Bound, The Long Kiss Goodnight, A Time to Kill, 2 Days in the Valley, Unforgettable

Additional: Blade (1998: Stephen Norrington)
Not Seen of Retro: Disturbing Behavior, Firestorm, Hard Rain, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Replacement Killers, Savior,Sphere, The Thin Red Line
Not Seen of Mark: The Negotiator, The Thin Red Line, U.S. Marshalls, Wild Things

Additional: Notting Hill (1999: Roger Michell)
Not Seen of Retro: The Bone Collector, The Corruptor, Deep Blue Sea, The General’s Daughter, Instinct, Lake Placid, Summer of Sam
Not Seen of Mark: American Pie, 8mm, Go, The World is Not Enough

Additional: Monsters Inc. (2001: Pete Docter,David Silverman)
Not Seen of Mark: Along Came a Spider, Anti-trust, Frailty, The Majestic, The Others, The Score
Not Seen of Retro: Behind Enemy Lines, Black Hawn Down, Enemy at the Gates, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Additional: Bubba Ho-Tep (2002: Don Coscarelli)
Not Seen of Mark: Collateral Damage, The Conte of Monte Cristo, Die Another Day, The Four Feathers, Jason X
Not Seen of Retro: Blood Work, Count of Monte Cristo, Narc, Sum of All Fears, Transporter

2003
Big Fish (2003: Tim Burton)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003: Peter Jackson)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003: Peter Weir)
Matchstick Men (2003: Ridley Scott)
A Mighty Wind (2003: Christopher Guest)
Mystic River (2003: Clint Eastwood)
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003: Robert Rodriquez)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003: Gore Verbinski)
Seabiscuit (2003: Gary Ross)
Touching the Void (2003: Kevin Macdonald)

Additional: Bruce Almighty (2003: Tony Shadyac)
Not Seen of Mark: The Cooler, Gothika, The Last Samurai, The Live of David Gale, Open Range, Out of Time, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Note Seen of Retro: Basic, Dark Blue, The Hunted, Tomb Raider – Cradle of Life, Tears of the Sun, The Recruit

Additional: Grandma’s Boy (2006: Nicholaus Goossen)
Not Seen of Mark: Blood Diamond, Hollywoodland, Running Scared, Thank You for Smoking
Not Seen of Retro: Black Dahlia, Blood Diamond, Casino Royale, The Good Shepherd, Flags of Our Fathers

2007
3:10 to Yuma (2007: James Mangold)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford (2007: Andrew Dominik)
Control (2007: Anton Corbijn)
Eastern Promises (2007: David Cronenberg)
Hot Fuzz (2007: Edgar Wright)
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007: Seth Gordon)
No Country For Old Men (2007: Coen Brothers)
Ratatouille (2007: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava)
There Will Be Blood (2007: Paul Thomas Anderson)
Zodiac (2007: David Fincher)

Additional: Hot Rod (2007: Akiva Schaffer)
Not Seen of Mark: Death Sentence, Gone Baby Gone, In the Valley of Elah, Live Free or Die Hard, The Orphanage, We Own the Night
Not Seen of Retro: Charlie Wilson’s War, The Kingdom, Shooter, American Gangster, Hitman

Additional: Doubt (2008: John Patrick Shanley)
Not Seen of Mark: The Bank Job, Body of Lies, Pride and Glory, Quantum of Solace, Rambo
Not Seen of Retro: The Bank Job, Body of Lies, Quantum of Solace, 10,000 BC

Additional: Star Trek (2009: J.J. Abrams)
Not Seen of Mark: Bandslam, Crossing Over, 500 Days of Summer, A Perfect Getaway, Terminator: Salvation, Up in the Air
Not Seen of Retro: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The International, Law Abiding Citizen

Added 1930 to 1934. 1931 through 1934 were pretty easy, I wasn't as happy with my 1930 picks. I believe my 1929-1930 watches are not as good as my 1925-1928, but I'll find out when I work on it. I think for the 1920s I will include shorts. I will try to avoid that as long as I can. 1930 could have been easier adding in some Laurel and Hardy shorts, but I choose the full length feature criteria.

Have seen more of your 30's picks than I would have thought. Still not enough to make a list of my own though. And yeah, you'd be hard pressed to do a full list of feature films for the 20's I think. But if anyone could, it would probably be you

RetroRobot wrote:Have seen more of your 30's picks than I would have thought. Still not enough to make a list of my own though. And yeah, you'd be hard pressed to do a full list of feature films for the 20's I think. But if anyone could, it would probably be you

I like quite a lot of film in the 30s. The early 30s I do not generally like as much as the end of the silent era because of the limiting use of direct sound (which is why 1929 will be a harder year for me to do than say 1926; another issue is that I have seen a lot of foreign silents which I will have to parse through as well as the many shorts too) which usually made the cameras more static, the voice acting would generally take a few years to get better and it also took them a few years to do more soundtracks to the material. Still a great decade for horror, gangster films, pre-code (yeah nudity and more adult subject matter) etc... 30s also saw the first use of three-strip Technicolor, a big rise in anti-war films toward the end of the decade, the ongoing Depression, America received many great directors who were trying to avoid the war issue and unfortunately the rise of the Hays Code.

I think I tend to prefer the comedy of the 20s to almost any decade because of Keaton, Lloyd, Charley Chase and Chaplin (though all worked in the 30s and have some good to great material). Laurel and Hardy is good in both 20s and 30s (the silent material really needs to be reissued, I've heard so not so good things about the nitrates for those.)

RetroRobot wrote:Oh, I just thought you said you had to include foreign films to fill it out.... must have misread.

It would make it easier. I rambled (thinking outloud) in the previous post so I probably was not as clear as I should have been (damn multitasking). I could get away with Hollywood/English including shorts. I am going to find what 20s films I own that I have not seen, but so far 1929 looks bad compared to some earlier 1920s years.

I had done an earlier post year by year for 20s films (including shorts and foreign; I might actually end up posting here now if you are interested for later comparison) which I was reviewing a few hours ago and yes both Nosferatu and Metropolis were there. Now I have seen both several times and have both on Kino R1 releases (including the latest release of Metropolis). I'm a bigger fan of Metropolis than Nosferatu, but I do think both are worth watching. Now it is funny how the German movies of that time have some of the biggest overacting I have ever seen. I love the overexagerated movements in Metropolis.

RetroRobot wrote:Fell asleep to Bringing Up Baby last night.... classic flick, glad to see it made your list, Angels With Dirty Faces. And my fave version of Hunchback.... though I know it's not yours

Which version is your favorite?

Also yesterday watched Desperate Journey (Raoul Walsh) which was on your list. That was fun "The Iron Cross has a glass jaw." Actually you have inspired me to watch several WWII films of late. What is your opinion (if you have seen it) on Decision Before Dawn (1951: Anatole Litvak)?

I don't remember seeing Decision Before Dawn, but I just added it to the list. I see it stars Richard Basehart. Just saw him and Honor Blackman hamming it up as a murderous couple in an episode of Columbo the other day.... that was a good one.

I don't remember seeing Decision Before Dawn, but I just added it to the list. I see it stars Richard Basehart. Just saw him and Honor Blackman hamming it up as a murderous couple in an episode of Columbo the other day.... that was a good one.

Actually I like that version quite a lot. I'm a big Charles Laughton fan and his portrayal is quite good (any bad performances from him?). I saw it more recent than the Lon Chaney version and I agree with you the 1939 is my favorite version so far.

Surprisingly (to me) Decision Before Dawn was nominated for Best Picture. I've been working on the Best Picture nominations trying to get my percentage up and you had mentioned several WWII films so I thought it was time to watch. Surprisingly mature. Oskar Werner is a big focus of the picture and while he has not been in a lot of films, I generally like his performance (Jules and Jim, Ship of Fools, Fahrenheit 451, smaller role in Lola Montes.) Much of it is filmed on location and the sets really help the mood of the film out (the best use of European burnt out location along with Germany Year Zero -- I recommend the Roberto Rossellini
film if you have not seen it.)

On a side note: I bought the entire Columbo collection for my parents for Christmas. I'll eventually start working on those. I recently finished the entire series of Monk .

Masterofoneinchpunch wrote:On a side note: I bought the entire Columbo collection for my parents for Christmas.

Ah, excuse me, Sir. I'm sorry to bother you again, but you left your thumb print on the DVD lying next to the body...

I knew I the DVD would have been the end of me (though I always thought it was going to be from that over-flowing stack of Hong Kong movies or the other pile of westerns that one day was going to fall over on me and trap me on the floor, the Hong Kong Western pile is too small to suffocate a mouse.)

The "come back" is always fun from that character. Looking forward to going through it all eventually including the TV movies.

Have it too. And have seen em all way too many times. Same with Miami Vice. Though I usually start to lose enthusiasm once we get to the later seasons. There is always a dip in quality. Columbo should have stopped after season 5. And the 90's run should never have happened. Vice should have called it quits after the third season. But that's American tv for ya'. They milk that teet for all its worth. Which is why very few shows ever end on a high note. Except for Seinfeld, The Wire and maybe a few others.

I hope you are feeling better Retro. I was sick earlier in the week (possibly food poisoning, though not as bad as I have had it so it might have technically been something else) still went to work though .

The following is an old list, not updated since I wrote it a few years back of my top 10 films (foreign and shorts) per year from 1920-1929. The first post will not be updated with this. I'm posting this for fun now since I do not know when I'll work on updating the 20s so I know of several films that will be different when I redo this. I have several things I want to watch first (Hollywood and/or English) before I start on the 20s.

Think i've seen under 10 films total from that 20's list. Love the Cocoanuts.... only have it taped of tv on vhs, as it never had a decent release.... at least not since the last time I checked.... but that was quite a while agon though.

Think i've seen under 10 films total from that 20's list. Love the Cocoanuts.... only have it taped of tv on vhs, as it never had a decent release.... at least not since the last time I checked.... but that was quite a while agon though.

I'm a fan of the Marx brothers so I've seen that a few times (even got my Mom some sheet music from that film.) The only thing I have not seen of all three in the same film is The Story of Mankind (which is not usually considered a Marx Brothers comedy since they don't appear together.) It is available only on MOD.

There's a lot of shorts on that list where you can see my fondness for Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd. But you can also see some Charley Chase, Harry Langdon as well. The main full length films I know I have seen since that list is an older set of Douglas Fairbanks films where it has several of his early comedies (which I'm actually not that fond of, I perfer his action oriented films by far) and a Mary Pickford set (which at least one of her films will make the lists.)

Markgway wrote:I bow to your passion for and knowledge of classic cinema.

Thanks. I think I'm a bit of a cinema junkie. Your HK knowledge is pretty amazing (which I know eventually you will put it into a book which all of his here will buy.) Retro's got me on later decades especially with action and war films which I'll have to work on .

On a side note: it is sometimes amazing what influences I see on some HK filmmakers from silent cinema sources. Sammo Hung directly lifting a Laurel and Hardy gag, John Woo lifting several Chaplin scenes, Jackie Chan and his Keatonesque and Lloyd influence etc... And this is not even counting the golden age of Hollywood's influence.

Cool. Lawrence Tierney was scary even back then. Of course later in life he was just scary cuz he lost his fucking marbles. The stories from the likes of Tarantino or Jerry Seinfeld on working with him, and just how fucking nuts he was are really funny.

RetroRobot wrote:Cool. Lawrence Tierney was scary even back then. Of course later in life he was just scary cuz he lost his fucking marbles. The stories from the likes of Tarantino or Jerry Seinfeld on working with him, and just how fucking nuts he was are really funny.

Yeah I've read about that. Recently I've seen him in (older films) Dillinger and this. Hard to believe he lived to 82. I've heard the Seinfeld stories (as extras), crazy about the knife story.

I was surprised when I found out it is not on any lists on icheckmovies. Not on any 1000(1) lists or anything. I think you can qualify this as an underrated movie.

It is one of those films where the initial mission works out perfectly and quickly which leads you to realize their journey back is going to be the issue.

James Wong Howe's cinematography, as usual, was excellent. I'm used to seeing stock footage in WWII films at that time so it is not too distracting (other than the quality of the film) though on the first mission it does seem like there is way too many people parachuting. Nice use of close-ups as well as composition which I always find strong in Howe's work.

I liked Errol Flynn's performance in this. He's not a hard-ass leader (compare him to the overly stoic Gregory Peck in 12 O'clock High), but one who does by example first. So you feel that the men will follow him anywhere. The telling scene is when he takes a shovel on the hill after everyone is exhausted and distraught. I really need to get to reading his autobiography (I know it was ghostwritten, but a lot of it was his writing.)

Interesting to see the use of China as our ally which would change in a few years.